Pump not moving much water after high winds dump dirt in my pool

[letterk]

For those of you that have lived in Southern California know, we get yearly high winds around this time of the year. Usually, it means some leaves in the pool and a lot of dirt at the bottom of the pool. Usually, I let the pool cleaner do its work and then I clean the filters. I can always tell when the filters are gunked up because the cleaner starts to move slowly and the waterfall off the spa slows down.

Well, I let the winds to their thing and then get the filter moving after skimming out all the leaves. This time though it doesn't even start to clean the bottom before it slows down. I open up the filter and clean it out today. Not terribly dirty as I was expecting, but enough that it needed a good cleaning. Clean out the skimmer and the pump pre-filters and turn it back on expecting it to be back to normal. Nope. Still barely moving water and the cleaner is crawling slowly. Check the filters and the pressure is at 5 bar, not above 20 bar as it's supposed to be. Turn on the spa and it only hits 12 bar. So something isn't working right and I'm not sure what. Any guesses on what to check next? I got a pool full of dirt and I need to get it cleaned!

 

[HermanTX]

This is a suction side cleaner. Is it hooked to the skimmer or to a dedicated suction line?
If you remove the cleaner all together and just circulate the water do you have sufficient output to the return jets? Is your VS pump on high speed? Are all the proper valves set up correctly - i.e. nothing got kicked or turned by accident? Hope this helps to rule out or identify some areas to review.

 

[workedonthousandsofpools]

A dirty filter will cause noticeable reduction in performance of cleaner, and weak flow at water feature, but more importantly it will be confirmed as a dirty filter from a higher than normal psi reading on the gauge.

But when you describe a low pressure scenario, and performance reduction in cleaner operation, and flow.

This would indicate a clogged impellor as the most likely cause, if your pump basket is not 100% intact, i,e. no cracks, splits, broken/missing plastic, or heat related melting that distorts the baskets original shape, any difference at all if it were compared to a new basket. will eventually clog the pump impellor, one leaf at a time that slips through a hole, or crack, in a structurally compromised pump basket will almost guarantee a clogged impellor in short order, or over a long period of time that slowly clogs the impellor, making it more, and more, less efficient, resulting in a lower than normal pressure on the filter gauge.

Your focus should be on the pump, and thoroughly inspect the areas i described, to either rule out, or confirm blockage of any kind, this will also be useful info for any future concerns that may develop from a low pressure condition.

Since you also noticed low pressure when switched to spa side, you can pretty much rule out any clog that could have been related to the cleaner or skimmer line as the problem with low pressure, if the cleaner line was clogged you would most likely notice an improvement in pressure when spa side is switched on.

Even with everything i have said here, you could have a perfect pump basket, the most ideal conditions that don't include a leaf problem, and still could have a clogged impellor somehow.

 

[letterk]

Clogged impeller! I had figured it was most likely a pump issues, but I didn't think of something so simple as a clog. Didn't think anything would last very long on something spinning that fast. I was wrong. Reached in there and pulled out a chunk of debris. Water moving swiftly again. Pump basket is in tact and looks perfectly fine. I had emptied it a day earlier, which was fuller than normal with all the gunk in the pool. But I guess some of that gunk got past it. It was actually not a lot, but enough to drastically cut down the cross sectional area available to water flow. Thanks!